mph relatively easy. The initial torquesurge was actually enough to catch afew unsuspecting riders by surprise.What was also surprising was the levelof physical workout we could get bytrying to sustain that speed—don’t befooled, there’s a reason these bikes arecalled “pedal assist.”“For me,” the test rider said, “thereis a pain scale when climbing. It startswith a little burn, elevates to my heartrate pounding, jumps to gasping forbreath, and tops out at misery. TheTurbo slices misery off the top, butleaves everything else.”However, we also discovered arather abrupt fall-off in the level of“assist” when we were in any modeother than Turbo. At full assist, the

50-pound bike feels “light” underneathyou, but decrease the assist by evenjust one level and it suddenly feels likeyou’re pedaling a pro-level downhillmountain bike. Our best test came witha 200-pound rider on board who rodean 11-mile loop with 3000 feet of climb-ing. The ride took him 36 minutes tocomplete, and in the process, the bat-tery dropped from 90 percent capacityto 20 percent, whereby he also realizedthat in a power-saving move, the Turbomode ceased to kick in anymore.

Underneath a more adept roadie,
there was nothing but praise when it
came to tackling a steep hill. “It didn’t
feel like pedal assist,” he said. “It felt
like divine intervention! I don’t know
what I was expecting from this bike, but
it wasn’t this. It was really fun to ride.”

THE VERDICT

On more than one occasion we
heard people who were looking at the
Turbo ask what type of person would
spend $6000 for an electric assist bike.

The irony, of course, was that thesesame people were aboard $6000 (andup) carbon bikes with no power assist!Specialized said they are selling well,and for 2014, there will be a blacked-out version joining the Ferrari Redmodel we tested.Like all the pedal-assist e-bikes wetested, every regular, performance-oriented cyclist (whose daily com-mute was outside the range of theTurbo) who rode the Turbo came awayimpressed—and smiling from ear toear. To a man, none felt there was aplace for a $6000 e-bike in their ownstable (they preferred to save the $6000for their next pedal bike), but everyoneknew who the bikes could be perfectfor: the rider who just wanted to gosomewhere, the rider who cares aboutthe destination rather than the ride. Forsure, e-bikes are perfect for commut-ers or anyone with a physical limita-tion. One test rider did make the smartobservation: “I would rather they spentless on the bicycle parts and provideda second battery so I could ride to thecoast, switch to the new battery andthen ride home. ■www.specialized.com

“It didn’t feel likepedal assist.

It felt like divineintervention!”

Not to minimize the Turbo’s performance, but the handy
centerstand was definitely a standout feature.